Taylor Fletcher

11/01/2013 11:29AM
● By Grant Johnson

Photo courtsey NBC Olympics/USOC

Steamboat Springs, CO - Nordic combined skier and younger brother to Bryan Fletcher, Taylor competed in
the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver and is one of the fastest skiers on the
American Nordic combined team.

Q. Who is your biggest role model?A. By far my brother. Bryan has been
through so much in his life, by battling cancer and successfully defeating leukemia.
Now he is a teammate and fierce competitor of mine and we enjoy training and
competing together all year.

Q. Where is the coldest place you’ve ever skied?A. Kuusamo, Finland, has the
possibility to be considered unlivable by my standards. When you go that far
into the Arctic Circle, you do not see any sun or light in November. Even
semi-cold days seem like freezing cold ones.

Q. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received?A. Have fun. If you are not going to
have fun, then there is no reason to continue. I have figured out that when I
am having fun, my results get better, and everything seems easier.

Q. How do you like to relax?A. A lot of my teammates consider me
a professional sleeper. I fall asleep very easily and stay asleep very well.
But when I am not sleeping, we spend most of our time on the road watching
movies (comedy guy here), TV shows and occasionally reading.

Q. Is there anywhere you consider to be your second home?A. Park City is my second home, as
that is where I am currently living. But our team spends a lot of time in
beautiful places such as Ramsau, Austria; Lillehammer/Oslo, Norway; and
Seefeld, Austria. I have great connections with all these places and I truly
feel at home when I am there.

Q. What’s on your warm-up playlist? A. I have all sorts of music, from
Lil’ Wayne to Sam Bush. But when I am warming up I tend to listen to Mumford
and Sons, as it is the prefect tempo to not get you over-pumped, but not put
you to sleep.

Q. What does a typical day of training look like for you?A. Wake up, make some eggs, gallons
of coffee. First session on the books would be an endurance session (cycling,
running, rollerskiing or skiing in the winter). After lunch, I would head out
for either weights in the gym or a second endurance session. In between is
rest, but often it is taken up with sponsor meetings or team meetings.

Q. What’s it like to compete alongside your sibling? A.
Competing alongside
Bryan is a dream in itself. He was my hero growing up and still is today. He
has been through so much in his life that I can’t compare too. We work very
well together on the World Cup circuit. Bryan is the better jumper and I am the
cross-country skier, so we both have trades that work for each other. I try to
beat him every weekend so I can joke with him, since I am younger. Our dream
was partly accomplished last year when we both received medals at the World Championships
in the team event, and we are working very hard to do the same at the Olympics.

Q. Describe your perfect day.A. It would include everything that
I love in life, with enough time so nothing is packed. This includes, not
limited too, backcountry skiing, sleeping, eating, ski jumping, cross-country
skiing, traveling, relaxing, friends, family and ice cream. On the competition
side, it would start out with perfect soft-boiled eggs in the morning with
bacon on top. Perfect competition venue with a very nice jump and a very hard
XC course. Perfect conditions, and a victory of some sort.

Q. What’s your
favorite concert venue?A. My headphones. They are with me
every day during the winter and I can listen to my music all over the world.
Physically, I would say Red Rocks has to be the coolest.

Q. What’s your
favorite summertime activity in Steamboat?A. Ski jumping, then tubing the
Yampa, followed by some ice cream or Double Z.

Q. Whose autograph do you want to get in Sochi?A. The U.S.A. hockey team, when they
beat the Russian team on home soil.

Q. If you had three wishes, what would they be?A. My first wish would be that
everyone in the world received food and water. My second is that economically
everyone could afford life. My last, I wish I could teleport everywhere and not
have to drive or fly to events.